Child's World
Child's World is an American children's radio series that was broadcast on ABC October 26, 1947 - June 27, 1949. More than 5,000 children were interviewed on the award-winning program. A television series was adapted from it, and discussions from it formed the basis of a book.
Background
Educator Helen Parkhurst created Child's World, the goal of which was to "educate parents through the wisdom of their own children". For two years prior to the show's premiere she interviewed children about their personal problems and recorded their responses, accumulating more than 200 recordings in that process. The interviewees came from parochial, private, and public schools and from urban, suburban, and rural settings. Those experiences indicated that a formal structure would inhibit freshness and spontaneity, so she chose to use unrehearsed discussions on the broadcasts.Format
Parkhurst hosted the program in a way that was "strictly non-parental, neither admonishing nor lecturing". Each episode had a group of children gathered in Parkhurst's apartment in New York to talk spontaneously about topics selected by Parkhurst. The setting enabled participants to talk "without consciousness of a listening audience" and with "none of the tenseness or formatlity of a studio program".Participants ranging in age from 4 to 14 were usually picked from lists submitted by schools in New York, with six to nine appearing in an episode. They came "from all races, nationalities, and economic backgrounds" and ranged "from dead-end kids and juvenile delinquents to the precocious and the average". They received no prizes for their participation. Topics of discussions included allowances, friends, lying, older siblings, privileges, secrets, babies, death, God, jealousy, teachers, and playing hooky,
Lawrence K. Frank, director of the Caroline Zachry Institute of Human Development, wrote a commentary after each broadcast that "analyzes the children's conversations, stresses points which tend to make conflicts between children and adults, and suggests ways in which adults might treat similar situations which arise between them and children." Each commentary was available free to anyone who sent a request for it to ABC in New York City.
ABC received an average of 400 letters per week in response to episodes of Child's World, with some episodes that contained "particularly exciting discussions" prompting much larger mail responses.
Production
Before each broadcast, the children participating spent a few minutes in a room by themselves "to gain confidence". From there they went to Parkhust's dining room, where they stood around a circular railing. Each stood shoeless Once they were in place, Parkhurst named the topic to be discusses, and the children began to speak freely into the microphones. A wire recorder preserved the children's comments for use on the air.Child's World initially was broadcast on Sundays at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. In March 1948 it was moved to Thursdays at 10 p.m. E. T. In March 1949 it was moved to Mondays at 9:30 p.m. E. T. The program was sustaining.
Critical response
A review in The New York Times said that Child's World "represents the most direct, specific and, quite frequently, humorous documentation of children's views" that were likely to be broadcast, noting that children on the program were "heard fairly and honestly and without exploitation". The only flaw mentioned in the review was Parkhurst's lack of flexibility in talking with the participants. It said that she sometimes followed "what sounds like a predetermined pattern" rather than adapting her questions to the children's comments.Radio Album magazine called Child's World "unique among programs featuring small fry" because Parkhurst "neither exploits the children nor plays them for laughs", and Life magazine wrote that it was "the most fascinating of juvenile programs".
Media critic John Crosby wrote, "the kids are astonishlingly literate in these discussions and painfully frank, indicating that Miss Parkhurst is something of a genius at opening up children".
Will Jones commented in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune that Parkhurst "seemed to guide the discussion with a bit too heavy a hand", but even so, "the program had a candid, refreshing quality".